Busted (8 page)

“You said she was your granddaughter.”

“Well.” The smile still played at her lips. “She was just as good as. That girl felt like family. All I ever wanted to do was protect her.”

“Like you were trying to protect your sons?” Will leaned forward. “Wayne Walker and Doug-Ray Pierce.”

“Both dead,” she told Will. “I heard it on the news. Wayne died half an hour ago. Bless both their hearts.”

Will hadn’t heard about Walker, but he wasn’t surprised. “You don’t seem too broken up that two of your children are dead.”

“Wayne was sick for a long time with the cancer.” She blinked, and he wondered whether her moist eyes were for show. “He was an asshole, but he was my asshole.”

“And Pete McClendon?”

“Sweet, but stupid.” She chuckled as she took another hit from the joint. “So stupid.”

“He was robbing businesses on his own beat. We talked to the detectives on the case. They were about to arrest him.”

“I told him he’d get caught eventually – don’t shit where you eat – but that boy was a shit-eater from the day he was born.”

“What about the store today?”

She set the joint down on the edge of the table. Will watched it smolder against the linoleum. Her hand shook as she reached out to the phone. She was better at working the device than Will. A series of swipes turned off the recorder, then she pressed the button and powered it down.

She put the phone back on the table and picked up the joint.

She said, “It was Wayne’s idea. He knew he was dying, wanted to go out with a bang. Fly to Vegas, get some hookers.” She lowered her voice. “Let’s be honest, nobody was gonna sleep with that asshole unless they was gettin’ paid for it.”

Will had to take a moment to digest her words. It was very convenient that Wayne couldn’t dispute the charge. “What about Doug-Ray?”

“He was following Wayne’s lead. That’s just how they are, isn’t it? Always looking for the fast score, too lazy to make it happen on their own. I told him it would get him killed one day.” She puffed out a cloud of smoke. “Men never listen to reason.”

“Did you know Wayne was going to kill Doug-Ray?”

“They were brothers, but they never got along.” She added, “And Arthur’s pension from the post office died with him, so what’s the point?”

Will had always thought being able to live your life was a good point. “There was only a thousand bucks in that cash register.”

“A thousand twelve,” she corrected. “Never lie about money, son.”

Will shook his head. He still didn’t understand, and he wasn’t too proud to admit it. “All of this for a little over a thousand dollars?”

“Anybody ever tell you you’re just about as ignorant as a goat?”

Will didn’t respond. Amanda often compared him to farm animals. “What’s in it
for you, Maw-Maw? I don’t get it.”

“Well, let me walk you through it, boy.” She counted off on her fingers. “Wayne got fired, but he’s still got his pension and life insurance policy through the school. Doug-Ray has about the same, but Pete’s the jackpot. A hundred thousand dollars for being killed in the line of duty. And happened just in time, I guess, if those detectives were as close as you say to locking him up.” She seemed pleased with herself. “I’m next of kin with his mama and daddy gone.”

“Pete’s not dead.”

“Yet.” She shrugged. “If he makes it, he’ll get disability. The investigation will go away – let’s be real, the county doesn’t need another scandal on top of the pile. I guess I’ll have to take care of little Petey again.” The wink she gave Will suggested what kind of caregiver she planned on being. “Poor boy.”

“What about Billie?”

Maw-Maw’s face twisted in disgust. “She pulled a baby-daddy scam on Doug-Ray. I saw it coming a mile away, but he was blind to anything had more than one hole between the legs. That girl was about as pregnant as I was. I let her live with me so I could keep an eye on her. She spun some story about losing the baby. Of course, I couldn’t kick her out after that. I’m a Christian.”

“You needed her as a witness,” Will realized. “The store really had to be robbed. She had to back up Pete’s line-of-duty death.”

“Which she would’ve done if everything hadn’t gone to hell.”

Will floated his theory. “Doug-Ray and Pete weren’t meant to survive the robbery. Shooting Pete in the chest wasn’t an accident. Neither was shooting Doug-Ray
in the head.”

“Wayne had one foot in the grave. The melanoma was gonna take him in a few months. I told you, he never much liked Doug-Ray, and Pete always got more poon than he did, which can grate on a man. I’m sure you get where I’m coming from. Every single one’a y’all walk whichever way your compass needle points you.”

Will had to say, “For the mother of three sons, you really seem to hate men.”

“What can I tell ya? I’ve known too many of them to think otherwise. Present company excluded, of course.”

Will doubted he was an exception. Hate radiated off her like the heat lamp over the nachos at the Lil’ Dixie.

He thought of something that hadn’t stuck out before. “The surveillance camera was angled to the back of the store. Billie’s testimony about the robbery would’ve been the only thing the police had to go on.”

“Which would’ve worked great if the little bitch hadn’t run out the back screaming her head off. Took everything I had in me to keep her from going to the police.” She soured her face. “You don’t think I wanted to be up there this morning pretending like I saw the whole thing.”

Will was fairly certain Maw-Maw had seen a great deal. He asked, “What kept her from turning all of you in?”

“Money,” she said. “I threw the bag of cash on the roof of the store. Near about shocked me to death that y’all didn’t look up there.”

Will could only imagine the words Amanda would have for the agents who missed this. “Billie was supposed to get the proceeds from the holdup.”

“Now you’ve got it.”

“And Gilbert?”

“He’s the only one’a them ever added up to anything.” Her words were kind, but her expression said otherwise. “Not that that’s much, considering.”

“Where is he?”

“Dead eight days. Slipped and fell at the store. Cracked his head open like a walnut.” She shook her head. “I swear to God, if I’d known the police was this stupid, I woulda planned this whole thing a lot different.”

The woman had a point. Gilbert’s accident had happened in Clayton County. His death would’ve been investigated by the GBI medical examiner’s office. The autopsy report was probably making its way through the system.

“Poor Gil,” Maw-Maw said. “Little shit couldn’t run a business to save his life. Or my life, which is the part that matters. The whole damn place was falling down. Mortgaged out the wah-hoo. And then I find out he put my house up as collateral. I was gonna lose everything.” She pointed her finger in Will’s direction. “I’ll tell you what I told Billie: ain’t nothing you can get from a man that you can’t get better from a dog and a jar of peanut butter.”

Will felt light-headed.

She threw back her head and laughed. “Shut your mouth before you catch some flies, boy. I may be old as dirt, but I still got some life left in me.”

Will tasted blood in his mouth. His teeth had cut open the inside of his cheek.

“That it?” She pressed her hand to the table, making to stand.

“Sit down.” Will stopped thinking about what she’d said and concentrated on
what she’d done. Her sons were dead – two of them by violent means; God only knew what had happened to the other. The boy she had raised was clinging to his life at the hospital. Billie Lam lay dead on the floor with a knife in her heart.

And Maw-Maw was certain she was going to get away with it.

Will reached for the phone. She clamped her hand over his. She was fast when she wanted to be. He could feel the sandpapery rub of her skin as he pulled his hand away.

He said, “The robbery was your idea, not Wayne’s.”

One shoulder went up in a shrug. The motion was almost lost under her loose-fitting dress. Will wondered what else she had under there. Faith’s earlier warning still echoed in his brain. He’d been played like a fiddle by this woman from the moment they’d met. Will took out his gun and put it on the table in front of him. His hand stayed on the grip.

“Well.” She glanced down at the Glock. “That changes the tone.”

“You’re the reason they’re dead. Wayne, Doug-Ray, maybe Pete. Certainly Billie.”

She stubbed the end of the joint out on the table. “I only got a few years left. I’m not gonna end up spending them in some damn state-run nursing home stewing in my own piss.”

“You sacrificed all those lives so you could enjoy your retirement?”

“I’ve earned it.” She shrugged again, this time with both shoulders. “Two, maybe three less men walking the planet. As far as I’m concerned, I’ve done the world a favor.”

“Not all men are bad.”

She snorted, as if he’d told her a really bad joke. “You’d put me in jail if you could.”

“Prison,” he told her. “Jail is where you await trial. Prison is where you go after you’re sentenced.”

“You gonna put my picture in
Busted
?” She laughed at his surprise. “I work at a convenience store, numbnuts. We look at that thing every week to see how many customers are in it.”

“I’m going to make sure you’re the centerfold.”

“You’d have to be a hell of a lot smarter than you come across.”

Will leaned in closer. Maw-Maw did the same, like they were about to throw it down and arm-wrestle.

He said, “You’ve been lying to the police all day.”

“I did what I had to do.”

“You lied to the police about working at the store this morning.”

“Yep.”

“You lied to the police about being Billie’s grandmother.”

“Uh-huh.”

“You lied to the police about your sons being involved in the robbery.”

“I did.”

“You lied to the police about being in the back of the Chevy this morning.”

She smiled.

“I know that was you.” Will recalled the shambling departure the third robber had made from the back of the truck. It wasn’t the case of a man being covert. It was the case
of an old woman trying not to break a bone.

He said, “You went to the back of the store to wait for Billie. You were there to make sure she didn’t run.”

She shrugged. “Girl never had much of a spine.”

“You’ve been obstructing this investigation from the beginning.”

“Yes, I suppose you’re right.” She employed her patented one-shoulder shrug. “Am I supposed to be sorry?”

“You killed Billie.”

She moved back in the chair. She was cocky, but she knew she was talking to a police officer. “That was clearly self-defense.”

Will narrowed his eyes. “Is it clear?”

“I’ll get a good lawyer,” she told him. “I’ve recently come into some family money.”

“You even lied about things that didn’t matter. Gilbert wasn’t Jewish.”

“He was never circumcised.” She snorted with disgust. “I suppose Obamacare will take care of that.”

Will refused to let her sidetrack him. “Why lie? Why lie to the police for no reason?”

“Because I can,” she answered, like it was simple. “Because it’s fun. Because watching y’all spin around chasing your tails all day has been the most entertainment I’ve had in ages.” She gave a rascally chuckle. “If that’s a crime, then arrest me.”

“Okay.” Will stood up. He pulled a set of handcuffs out of his back pocket. “Please stand.”

“What are you doing?”

“Samantha Lewis, I’m placing you under arrest.”

“What the hell for?” She was talking tough, but there was genuine concern in her eyes. “You can’t prove I had anything to do with that robbery. You can’t prove what happened with Billie was anything but self-defense.”

“You’re probably right,” Will allowed. “But I’m absolutely certain I can prove you lied to the police. That’s a felony, Mrs. Lewis. Each instance carries a five-year prison sentence. By my count, you just admitted to it four times, plus copped to willfully obstructing an investigation.” He matched her hillbilly cadence. “Did you not know all that’s illegal?”

“What the—” She tried to stand, nearly knocking over the chair in the process. “I didn’t—”

“You did.” Will reached into his shirt and pulled out the microphone that was clipped to the inside of his collar. “And you admitted to doing all of it on tape.” He hoped there was a twinkle in his eye when he smiled. “Thanks for waiving your rights, by the way.”

“I turned that off!” she screamed. The effort nearly knocked the wind out of her. She gripped the counter for support. “You bastard! I’ll cut off your balls and feed them to the pigs!”

Will opened the kitchen door. Faith was standing there. He had done a lot of outlandish things today – wasted twelve minutes waiting on an Icee, chased after a murderer without a gun or backup, jumped from a speeding motorcycle – but he didn’t have it in him to handcuff an eighty-four-year-old woman, no matter how detestable her
crimes. Besides, her wrists were too thin for the cuffs.

Faith said, “Samantha Lewis, you have the right to remain silent.”

“Go to hell.”

“Please exercise your right to remain silent.” Faith tried to grab the old woman’s hands. “You have a right to an attorney.”

Maw-Maw slapped her away like she was swatting flies. Faith was not deterred. She held both of the woman’s wrists in one hand. With her free hand, she pulled out a plastic zip tie. Will saw Faith wince as the plastic cut against the woman’s thin skin.

“Idiots!” Maw-Maw said. “They won’t convict me! I’m just an old woman! I won’t spend a day behind bars!”

“Our boss is with the state prosecutor right now,” Faith told her. “You know we’re with the state, right? The jury for your trial won’t be from Forest Park.”

Maw-Maw’s mouth opened as she sucked air.

Faith continued, “Believe it or not, Georgia is cracking down on people who lie to the police. The attorney general plans on making an example of you.”

“That’s not true!” Maw-Maw’s voice had a pleading tone to it. “You watch. There’s not a jury alive who’ll convict me. I was protecting my family! Anybody would do that!”

“We’ll see in a year or so,” Faith said. “That’s about how long this will take to come to trial. Unless you have somebody who’ll bail you out? Maybe a family member?”